Imaginary Yoga and the 4 yoga cycles

The new student of yoga is pleasantly surprised to find that the yoga postures are named after animals, plants, and objects: Cat, pigeon, tree, plough. While these names are to be seen as metaphors rather than be taken literally, there is no hidden mystic meaning behind these names. The Ancients were simply experimenting with things they saw around them. And so can you! You can make up yoga postures by studying the world around you and creating postures that emulate or express the inner essence of things you observe. Call it Imaginary Yoga.

When you practice your Imaginary Yoga just make sure you use the 4 yogic cycles. My students are closely familiar with them: they are the basis of the yoga I teach.

1. Breath cycle.
One of my teachers used to say that yoga was an excuse to breathe. What he meant was that the deep, even breathing in yoga is at the heart of the practice. Fill your entire torso with breath and then gently let it all out.

2. Expansion and contraction cycle.
In moving postures, breathe in when you expand, as in looking up or bending backwards. Breathe out when you contract, as in looking down or bending forward. When you get to a posture that is held in stillness you don't need this principle.

3. Internal rhythm cycle.
On the outbreath you contract the anal sphincter. On the inbreath you relax it.

4. Effort and relaxation cycle.
Effort is used on the outbreath both in still postures and moving ones. The inbreath is never accompanied by an active movement or effort in stillness: it is accompanied by relaxation.

The four cycles work together to create a Gestalt, or whole, so it is important to combine them.

After all the word yoga in Sanskrit means, to join.

Peace and Love,

Abhay